And I Thought He Didn't Like the Rain
by zutara4alwayz
Summary: sorry it's a day late. my submission for Zutara Week. Prompt Denim. Oneshot: Zuko and Katara discover friendship --and a little more-- with the help of some new denim beauties. AU. rated T to be safe


And I Thought He Didn't Like the Rain

By zutara4alwayz

I DO NOT OWN AVATAR OR ANY OF ITS FEATURES, NOR DO I OWN "IN BLOOM" BY NIRVANA

(Written for Zutara Week. Prompt DENIM)

"I refuse to do anything that involves the police." Aang stated firmly. He lifted one hand into the air, silencing Toph. Her eyes narrowed and she swiftly moved his hand from covering his face.

"But that's what makes it fun Twinkle Toes; doing the completely out-of-control-oh-my-gosh-what–was-he-thinking stuff!" She gave him a fierce noogie and laughed as Aang struggled to release his short brown hair from her grasp.

Zuko sat in the corner silently, one ear of his headphones was hanging by his waist while the other was in his ear blasting Nirvana. He was barely bobbing his head to the music, but you could see his fingers twitching along with the beat of "In Bloom."

In truth, he was beginning to wonder why he went on these summer gatherings to Toph's beach house anyway. Sokka and Suki stopped going when they bought their own beach house on the Eastern Shore, and Aang and Toph were always preoccupied with each other nowadays. Sure, she had a killer basement and every game system to date, but it seemed that all they ever did was sit in the basement and…chat. And now Toph was unsuccessfully trying to get Aang to not be such a wuss in Truth or Dare.

At the present time it was just the three of them, since Katara hadn't shown up yet. It was probably something about swim team he figured. Katara was a veteran of the beach town's old swim team "The Piranhas". She was quite a swimmer. Even during the school year, she was always in the water, usually competing, and usually winning. He closed his eyes in order to further drown out the bantering 14-year-olds.

"C'mon, Toph, let's just play Rock Band, or something else that's legal." Aang was now almost begging Toph as she was rhythmically punching his arm.

"No. You're gonna do a dare or… or…" She stammered as Aang put his face directly in front of hers. He was just inches away from her soft tiny lips and slightly tinted pink cheeks.

"Or what?" He said, lifting an eyebrow. Her lips curved slightly upwards as she leaned in to close the small gap.

"I'll clobber you."

Aang blushed slightly as she stared at him deviously. He leaned in and kissed her, and the two began to be immersed in their own affairs, totally ignoring an almost sleeping Zuko in the corner. Suddenly, someone cleared their throat.

"Am I…interrupting something?" A voice was heard from the doorway. The lip-locked teenagers whipped around to see Katara grinning and giggling. She indeed had come from a swim practice, wearing a light blue cotton V-neck blouse and a pair of beautiful dark blue jeans.

Aang was blushing tremendously as Toph sighed and put her hands on her hips. He stammered, "Oh…Hi Katara, we were just…"

"I know you guys are really into this new 'dating' thing you've got going on, but save it for the movie theaters, will ya?" She cocked her head and put her hands on her hips.

Toph rolled her eyes. "Yes, mother." She sighed. Katara beamed at them. Toph responded with a punch to Aang's arm.

"Ouch! Whadya do that for?"

"I don't really know. Truth is, there's never really a good reason!"

Zuko was now just waking up after hearing Katara bounce across the room to a nearby couch. He could see through the slits of his partially open eyes her dark skin and bouncy hair as she fell onto the couch. She seemed to be in a particularly good mood. He could tell by the gleam in her eye.

There was a long pause. Aang twittled his thumbs nervously and Toph whistled along with Zuko's iPod.

"So…" She began, "What do you guys wanna do?"

"Let's go for a walk!" Katara squealed, almost interrupting Toph. It was Zuko's turn to speak.

"But it's supposed to rain…"

"So? I like rain."

Everyone was looking around for approval of the idea. Aang shrugged, "Okay, fine by me."

Toph stood up and stretched. "Let's go. If we're lucky, we'll get soaked!"

She reached out and helped Aang get up. Three pairs of eyes all turned to look at narrow golden ones.

Zuko sighed "Okay, whatever." The three of them smiled and Katara walked over to his corner. She extended her hand and helped him get up from his slump on the floor. As he arose, he took notice of the dark blue denim jeans that settled upon her wide hips. He was almost taken aback at how curvaceous she was. For some reason, he had just never noticed it before. Sure, he had known Katara for a large portion of his life, but looking at her in those dark denim pants made him feel as if he was looking at a totally different girl. It was strange…

When they got outside, there was not a cloud in the sky. Zuko smiled slightly at the sun; its warm rays soaking into his pores. He put on his pair of black sunglasses, the special ones that made him feel really cool, as he walked down the sidewalk towards the pretty little beach at the end of the road.

"Hey Toph, I'll race ya to the beach!" Aang shouted, already far ahead of the others.

"Oh you don't know what you're up against Twinkle Toes." She licked her lips and made a mad dash towards the sprinting boy.

Katara was standing slightly ahead of Zuko, which gave him yet another opportunity to admire her figure. His eyes ran up and down her body, as if he was soaking in some precious knowledge that he would never again be able to obtain. Little did he know that she was watching him out of the corner of her eye with a tint of rose on her cheeks. She slowly turned away to look at the unusually quiet streets of the beach town.

"It's quiet today." She said, almost in a whisper.

"Yea." He replied, shoving one of his shaking hands into his pocket.

"I guess people are hiding..from the rain…which is actually nowhere to be found"

"I guess."

Katara wasn't sure what to make of her relationship with Zuko. It was just so different from her relationships with all her other guy friends. Unlike the others, he was never the type to approach her and start up a conversation. When they were slightly younger and first getting to know each other, she had to make a tremendous effort to get him interested in speaking with her. Otherwise, he went back to being the boy sitting in the corner blasting some classic rock with a dark shadow over his scarred face. She often wondered if he could be going deaf…

"Are those new?" He said, cocking his head towards the jeans. _She has grown a lot…_

"Oh these?" She blushed "Yea, I picked them up yesterday at some small store not too far from here. They were pretty cheap too. I--"

"The tag is still on them." He said. Katara blushed deeply and, with a swift hand movement, tugged the price tag from the jeans, tossing it in a near-by trash can. _His voice changed…I guess I missed that…_

"Oh…thanks." She looked down at her feet and wriggled her toes in her comfy grey flip flops. She smiled slightly and turned to Zuko, who was looking straight ahead at the nearing beach. "So what's up? I feel like I haven't seen you in a while."

Zuko quickly examined her figure again. "Yea…me too…" He shook his head to flip his hair "Not much, I've been pretty good I guess…well since I came out here. The home life hasn't been too great."

Katara stared at him, wide eyed. _Blue eyes_ he thought. _I never knew that_. "Oh. That's too bad."

"My father…" He began "He's been coming home extra late and extra drunk lately. He's kind of fallen into a routine I guess: Come home, yell at me, puke a bit, curse mom for leaving…he sometimes says an occasional word to Azula, but he usually leaves her out of his tirades and stumbles to bed." He kicked a pebble on the path, a bit too hard maybe.

"I'm sorry that things haven't gotten any better since…since…" She hesitated.

"Since this?" He pointed to the large scar that took up the entire area around his left eye. "Yea and I doubt they will ever change."

"But that's what friends are for, right? To make things better…" She gave him a genuine smile. _Blue eyes…they're beautiful._

"Uh…" He struggle to regain his thoughts "Right. Thanks." He rubbed his calloused hands along the back of his neck. His other arm slightly brushed Katara's as they stepped in perfect unison.

Not long after, they reached the quiet beach. There was no sign of anybody, including the daring couple of 14-year-olds. There was a strange cloud cover that was just beginning to grace the sky. A breeze formed in the salty air.

Katara and Zuko stepped onto the sand, which was colder than usual. She giggled when the cold sand dusted her toes and kicked off her flip flops. She began to run through the sand, her naked feet sending clumps of sand in the air with each bouncing step.

Zuko stood at the edge of the beach, eying her admiringly. His lips curved upwards slightly to form what appeared to be a faint smile.

"Zuko I don't think I've ever seen you smile before!" She laughed "You're quite good at it."

Immediately he scowled and crossed his arms over his chest. She pouted her lips at him and beckoned for him to follow her. He shoved both his hands in his jean pockets and began to trek through the dunes. _He's really made some changes for the better with that hair of his_ she thought as he walked towards her. She ran her fingers through her hair and sighed.

When they set foot on the beach, it was as if the world around them disappeared into total non-existence. As they walked parallel to the water, neither one knew where they were going or how long of a walk it would be, but somehow they each other enough to not even care. They were slowly losing themselves in the breeze of the afternoon…and losing themselves in one another.

When they had walked about a half a mile down the beach, Zuko felt a rain drop.

"Shit…" He muttered, but when he looked at his companion, she was smiling and laughing.

Katara began to squeal and cheer as the drops began to fall faster and faster, slowly soaking the two of them from head to toe. She didn't realize that Zuko had stopped walking until she had stopped spinning in the now pouring rain.

"What's your problem? Can't dance in the rain?"

"No…" Zuko muttered through gritted teeth. His sleek black hair was sticking to the sides of his face. "I mean…I'm just…cold" He closed his eyes tightly. Almost instantly, he felt Katara's body collide with his. She wrapped her long brown arms around his waist and buried her head in his chest, nuzzling him as she did. She looked up at his eyes, which were staring bug-eyed back at her. She chuckled and held him tighter.

"You said you were cold." Zuko relaxed his arms, which were still outstretched. Slowly, he wrapped his arms around her small waist, returning the loving embrace.

Suddenly Katara moved her hands to his scarred face, and held onto his cheeks very gently. She smiled at him, and when he returned the smile, a deep rosy color formed in her cheeks. Before she could say a word, he leaned in and sealed her lips with a sweet kiss.

The two of them parted quickly, both staring wide-eyed at one another. Neither one had anticipated their own actions. Neither one could say a word. They just gazed at one another, dumbfounded. Katara opened her lips to speak.

"We should head on home, the others will be worried sick…or Aang will at least." She practically had to scream over the crashing waves. They began to walk, and her brown legs were almost dyed completely blue from her rain-soaked jeans.

"Where were you guys!?" Aang yelled when they appeared in the doorway.

"Where were you?!" Zuko yelled a bit louder. He shook his head, sending water flying in all directions.

"We decided to skip the beach and grab some ice-cream. Then we CAME HOME because the clouds were looking UGLY." He folded his arms defensively. Toph rolled her eyes and blew a bubble of Juicy Fruit gum. Zuko yawned.

"Well, we sticked to the plan and went to the beach--"

"And got soaking wet…" Katara added, squeezing her hair out in a nearby plant pot.

She tied it up in a loose bun and entered the house with a light spring in her step. As she walked down to the basement, Zuko, perhaps hypnotized, followed her, a faint smile set on his lips.

Toph watched him go, grinning deviously and raising her eyebrow "And I thought he didn't like the rain…"

Now it was Zuko's turn to blush.


End file.
